Difference between revisions of "Censorship in the Kingdom of Italy"

Revision as of 08:45, 9 July 2014

Censorship in the Italian Social Republic is implemented or mandated by the ISR's ruling party, the National Fascist Party (PNF). Notable censored subjects include but are not limited to, democracy, ethnic independence movements, corruption, police abuses, anarchism, leftism, liberalism, some gossip, child pornography, news sources that report on these issues, foreign religious content. Censored media include essentially all capable of reaching a wide audience including television, print media, radio, film, theater, text messaging, instant messaging, video games, literature and the Internet. High officials have access to uncensored information via an internal document system.
Censorship in Italy was not created with Fascism, but it became a major issue immediately after the March on Rome. The main goals are:

• Control over the public appearance of the regime, also obtained with the deletion of any content that could allow opposition, suspicions, or doubts about Fascism;
• Constant check of the public opinion as a measure of consensus;
• Creation of a police network of national and local archives in which each citizen is filed and classified depending on their ideas, habits, relationship and any shameful acts or situations which arise;

Censorship fought ideological and defeatist contents, and any other work or content that could enforce disturbing cultural themes.

Censorship in public communications

This branch of the activity is mainly ruled by the Ministry of popular culture (Ministero della Cultura Popolare, Min.Cul.Pop.). This administration has competence on all the contents that could appear in newspapers, radio, literature, theatre, cinema, internet, TV and generally any other form of communication or art.

Television

Foreign news broadcasts in Italy are occasionally censored by being "blacked out" during controversial segments. All Italian TV stations are sometimes ordered to delay live broadcasts by 10 seconds, a policy that gives censors time to react in case anti-fascist demonstrators or others staged political protests. Foreign animation is also banned from prime-time viewing hours (5 to 8 pm) to help with domestic animation production. Like Internet censorship, enforcement in television censorship is increasingly ineffective and difficult because of satellite signal hacking systems which give direct access to channels and programs on any satellite that services the Asian Pacific region.

Literature

In literature, editorial industries had their own controlling servants steadily on site, but sometimes it could happen that some texts reaches the libraries and in this case an efficient organization is able to capture all the copies in a very short time. An important note deserves the question of foreign languages: with the general maneuver for self-sufficiency they have been banned, and attempts to use a non-Italian word results in a formal censoring action. Censorship does not however impose heavy limits on foreign literature, and many of the foreigner authors are and remain freely readable. Those authors could freely frequent Italy and even write about it, with no troubles.
Since 1930 it has been forbidden to distribute books that contain Marxist, Freemasonry, Liberal or Anarchist like ideologies, but these books are collected in public libraries in special sections not open to the general public. The same happens for the books that are sequestrated. All these texts could be read under authorization for scientific or cultural purposes, and this permission was quite easy to obtain: the main goal is to keep under control the readers, and only to a lesser extent to prevent them.

Press

The Italian press generally self-censors itself before the censorship commission could do it: the Regime feels quite safe, controlling it by the direct appointing of directors and editors through the specific State-sponsored professional association, the "Ordine dei Giornalisti". The Government issues orders on a regular basis to 'guide' coverage of individual sensitive issues.
Illegal press uses clandestine print and distribution, and are mainly connected with the activities of local political anti-fascist groups. The control on legitimate papers is operated by faithful civil servants at the printing machines and this generated a common joke affirming that any text that could reach readers had been "written by the Duce and approved by the foreman". Each printer must submit four copies of each printed (one at the Prosecutor's Office, two at the Prefecture and one at the police station) before spreading. The preventive control causes the self-censorship by journalists.
Fascist censorship promotes papers with wider attention to mere chronology of delicate political moments, to distract public opinion from dangerous passages of the government. All these maneuvers were commonly directed by MinCulPop directly. About satire and related press, reactions are not so severe.
The judicial authority may order the seizure of the press in the case of news which include the revelation of state secrets, the disclosure of information of which disclosure has been prohibited, incititation of the military to disobey the laws, offence and insult to the Duce and to the Pope, offence and insult to the Republic and to the constitutional institutions, offence and insult to the heads of foreign states, offence and insult to the Religion of State, incitement to commit crimes and apology of the same and anti-fascist propaganda and apologetics.

Internet

At least 5,000 websites are blocked from within the country. Certain search engine terms are blocked as well. More recently, through individual negotiations with the Italian government, Wikipedia, Google and YouTube have been opened up for public viewing with certain restrictions for those who access these sites from Italy.
The system of blocking sites and articles is referred to as “The Lictor Wall”.
On the Internet, people use proxy websites that allow anonymous access to otherwise restricted websites, services, and information.

Censorship in private communications

Any telephone call is at risk of being intercepted and, sometimes, interrupted by censors. Not all the letters are opened, and all those read by censors have the regular stamp that records the executed control.
Chattering en plein air is indeed quite risky, as a special section of investigators deals with what people is saying on the roads; an eventual accusation by some policeman in disguise is very hard to disprove.

Procedure

In most of the small villages, life is not heavily affected by censorship, since the local authorities use a very familiar style in executing such orders. Also in many urban realities, civil servants use little zeal and more humanity. But the general effect was indeed relevant. The censorship work is daily organized, resumed and composed in a note that daily was received by the Chief of Government, by the Duce and by the other major authorities. Notes report what people could think about relevant events, what was the public opinion in Italy, similar arguments.

Social reaction against censorship

Italians are generally well aware of the fact that any communication could be intercepted, recorded, analyzed and eventually used against them; this has been caused, since the 1920s, that censorship is a sort of usual rule to consider, and since the same time most people has used jargons or other conventional systems to overtake the rules.
The little, but still present, open opposition is expressed in satiric ways or with some studied legal tricks.

Subject matter and agenda

Censorship in Italy encompasses a wide range of subject matter. The agendas behind such censorship are varied; some are stated outright by the Government itself and some are surmised by observers inside and out of the country. Regulations include a full database of people who engage in unhealthy professional conduct who are excluded from engaging in news reporting and editing work.

Political

Censorship in Italy is largely seen as a measure to maintain the rule of the PNF. Censorship helps prevent unapproved reformist, separatist, subversive, or materialist ideas, peaceful or otherwise, from organizing themselves and spreading.
Additionally, censorship prevents Italian citizens from discovering or learning more about past and current failures of the PNF that could create or inflame anti-government sentiment. Measures such as the blocking of foreign governments' websites may also be intended to prevent citizens from learning about alternative systems of governance and demanding similar systems.
Italy also bans materials showing history that conflicts with the official version. Usually, people are allowed to talk about politics on the internet, but certain websites containing anti-government material are blocked.
In recent years, censorship in Italy is used not only for political protectionism but also for economic and military protectionism.

Public decency

Usually, the public decency censorship is employed to prevent political conflicts from happening within the social environment. Some censorship in Italy has been justified as upholding proper morals. This includes limitations on pornography, particularly extreme pornography, and violence in films.

Cultural

Italy has historically sought to use censorship to 'protect the country’s culture'. Continuing crackdowns on banning foreign cartoons from Italian prime time TV, and limits on screening for foreign films are a continuation of cultural-minded censorship.

Religious

A number of foreign religious texts, publications, and materials are banned or have their distributions artificially limited. Foreign citizens are also prohibited from proselytizing in Italy, and information concerning the treatment of some religious groups is also tightly controlled.

Ministry of Popular Culture

The Ministry of Popular Culture (It.: Ministero della Cultura Popolare, commonly abbreviated to Min.Cul.Pop.) is a ministry of the Italian Government from 1937. It controls most of the media channels in Italy.
The Fascist Regime, facing enduring internal threats, since the fascist roll-back of early 1990s, has pursued the externalization of threats directed at it, in order both to portray such threats as "illegitimate" (in the sense that they emanate from abroad and violate the norm of the Italian sovereignty) and to portray its repressive actions as "legitimate".

Related voices

• Internet in the Italian Social Republic